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The following 21 tree stories come from Chengdu , they emerge from the A4 Artist Residency in September-October 2024 which explored different aspects on sustainable living. A huge thank you to all the Tree Story Tellers who came to the CPI Festival workshops.

I first met Jessica during the CPI festival in front of the large LED panel screening the Tree Stories on Video at CPI the A4 Residency Chengdu Sept 2024 . We got chatting about her different connections to trees and nature and she was very enthusiastic, she immediately understood this practice of gathering tree stories from people . Here she talks about a poem “To the Oak Tree”.

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Jessica’s words:
When I touch this tree I think of our youth.
When we miss someone When we love someone
We would carve their name on the tree.
Later with time, we grew up
The trees that we planted also matured.
There is a poem. The poem is by Shu Ting
It is called “To the Oak Tree”.
This poem inspired the generation of young people in the 1980s.
When we were very young We talked about love
Talking about love
Talking about the manner of getting along with two people
We would compare ourselves to two trees that depend on each other
Standing upright, then standing up to the sky
I think the inspiration of this poem to our generation lies in
the‘attachment’, attachment between husband and wife
Attachment in love and growth, we grew up as two trees
Not like climbing trumpet creepers
This is my generation
This is my deepest memory of trees.

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Acknowledgments

A sincere thank you to A4 Art Centre and Residency for your support throughout preparations, workshops and recordings. Special thanks to videographer Xiao Qin 晓琴 and her camera team with Chen Yiyang 陈优扬 and of course to all the people who contributed their tree stories here. This is an important form of support and validation for this socio eco art practice encouraging further collaborations and allowing it to evolve into a more global practice.

 

Click here for  Blog on A4 Residency Experience

#1 Teardrops After a Storm                reflections on a Willow after the pandemic

#2 Pomegranate Tree                           in balance with life and nature

#3 Trees are like Humans                 shared characteristics between humans and trees

#4 Old Ash–A Real Survivor            resilience of an old ash  in the Cork countryside

#5 Tree Rings of Life                            parallel  growth and development of people and trees

#6 A Very Weird Elf                           roots and what grows beneath

#7 Old Crabapple of Wenhua Dian   ancient crabapple orchard in the Forbidden City

#8 Standing Fast                                ‘ … weight is cherished when we care’   a poem on steadfastness

#9 Feeling Good – Tree Song             a song of joy and spontaneity in Daizu language

#10 Forest Breath – Tree Story        ‘….400 million years of forest breath’

#11 Protective Peach – Tree Story   …peach wood placed under a child’s pillow

#12 Bee Tree Sycamore                        can produce the same pollen of a half an acre of  wild flowers

#13 Winter Apples                      ‘…a dim burn glistens from the frosted skin’  a poem on winter fruit

#14 Ancient Yew Trees  the traces of a church moved brick by brick across the river 100 years ago

#15 Once I Counted Birds              on one of the Cook islands where no people live

#16 Family Oak                                  the passing of saplings through friends and family

#17 When the Trees Say Everything    finding your identity and way of life

#18 Strawberry Tree                         Strawberry tree in ‘the Gairdin Beo’ community garden

#19 Mother Oak and Baby Oak    a link to Cnoc an Doirin

#20 My Leylandii                              a seemingly bland tree  linking past and present

#21 Chestnut Repotted                  a volunteer working at ‘the Gairdin Beo’ community garden

#22 Native Birch                               transplanting  Irish Birch

#23 Ethan’s Tree                              a heartbreaking story about a tree in Carlow’s town park

#24 Holding Trunk of Time        a haiku on the trunk of time

#25 Our Mother’s Legacy                a memory of teaching her children the latin names of plants

#26 It Blossomed                                    ‘… the power to change my mood’

#27 Always Trying To Hold Each Other Up   ‘… a gentle breeze comes and they get excited’

#28 Wollemi Pine                                      ‘…I am one of the oldest and rarest trees’

#29 Barrow Willow                                  ‘…holding the river bank together’

#30 For What We Might Become       ‘ ..roots clutching soil ripe with a lifeforce’

#31 Sheltering Beech                        growing up in the countryside  a story with a shocking ending

#32 Millennium Monkey Puzzle    a story connecting family and time

#33 Monterey Cyprus                            ‘….  the amazing woody wonder’

#34 Struggle On, Struggle On        ‘.. blossoms brightly before being swallowed by its white cousin’

#35 Like A Chestnut       imagining the journey of a chestnut in 1500’s while sitting under its tree

#36 Head and Shoulders Above the Rest    Californian Redwood, the giant, the king of trees

#37 An Dair Sean                                   Old Oak – ultimate wisdom

#38 Trees for the Forest     a reflection on centuries of fossil fuel use and a strive for regeneration

#39 The year 1710               counting the rings on an old oak stump with forester  Michael Sommers

#40  I Feel at Peace                  a collaborative response to trees, from Delta Centre Hanover

#41 Chongqing Cedar              the trees of Zhaomushan Park can pull the heart strings homeward

#42 Fire Vine Bauhinia                        Hani and the Dai cultures view this plant very differently

# 43 Bamboo – Flutter   a special bamboo used for cooking rice , it also has a unique flutter

# 44 St Anne’s Oak                  childhood memory of being with her brothers  and hiding from bullies

#45 Angie’s Umbrella Tree    A weeping Elm holding twisted branches called the ‘granny’s chair’

# 46  Berna’s Umbrella Tree                     a memory of  outsmarting grandmother

#47 Hawthorne , it gives and it gives…a fairy tree, a boundary tree , the blossoms smell divine

#48 Apple Tree Swing                         memories of a beautiful summers day

#49 Forest Bathing 1                         ‘ …throw out your yoga mats and settle yourself into the ground

#50 Forest Bathing 2                   ‘ …. you start to notice all the animals , the owls and the red squirrels

#51  Mulberry                                      when swiss watches were almost made in Waterford

#52 Prunus Kanzan                        ‘…..It was like confetti. It was just such a remarkable sight to see.’

#53 Oak We absolutely love it        ‘…Children love playing on it  and they have a swing on it’

#54 Pre-Famine Timber                   ‘….two and a half miles of river Slaney ’

#55 Slogged Apples                         ‘….We used to build huts up there on the tree’

#56 Ash  Determined to stay put      two sisters share a memory of an Ash in Ennis County Clare

#57 Best Apple Tart in Headford      ‘…four girls would stand under and shake it’

#58 Apple Tree of Clonmel              …..a little plantation of apple trees in memory of people

#59 Horizontal Arbutus Unedo        ‘… when they are actually on the ground lying beside you ‘

#60 Euonymus Zones             ‘….when April came she opened with a simple dress of sapling green’

#61 How big they can get                   ‘…to see them growing up over the years’

#62 Autumn Maple                              a family tradition of Sunday walks in the park

#63 The Magic of Moss                      the impact of a moss covered tree on a non verbal young boy

#64 Gallipoli and the Sycamore  planted in the early 1900’s by  Anthony Wheatley

#65 Liquid Amber ‘…..full leaf colour , red orange yellow absolutely aflame ‘

#66 Hardymount Chestnut ‘….when half of it fell down it kept us warm for about a year’

#67 Silver Birch – a gentle and lovely ending ‘……it just gently fell, like a kind of a yawn’

#68 Keeping Black Bird Company  ‘… for  years it appeared that the same blackbird came back’

#69 Tulip Tree                                    ‘….. It was said that after about 15 years it would bloom ‘

#70 Itea Iliciafolia                           ‘……So every year it reminds me …’

#71 Silver Birch Moonlight  ‘…. the full moon was right smack in the middle of the three of them’

#72 The Shape of it                                    how to recognize Silver Birch and Oak

#73 The Missing Gorilla                  mistaken identity,  one of the rare few funny tree stories !

#74 The Tree House                               ‘…. we spent many years down by the river ‘

#75 Bat Burglars                recall how their trees introduced birds and bats to the garden

#76 The Perfect Conker        a boyhood quest to find the best one

#77 Ginkgo Biloba and Sweet Gum      Rachel Doyle tells of her favourite trees

#78 Ash The Horse Whisperer        training horses under a huge Ash tree

#79 Healers                                         A story of healing and a love of trees

#80 Fairy Ash                                     an old ash  with burly roots holding little pools of water

#81 Under the Oak                         memories of growing  up on a farm surrounded by trees

#82 Date Palm   The life line of the Arabian Dessert for thousands of years

#83 Willow – Branching out preventing the felling of a tree on the grounds of an embassy

#84 Tree Bee Hive                             creating natural habitats for honey bees

# 85 Flaky Bark Birch                    the unexpected sight of red flaky bark flickering in the wind

# 86 Devine Tree of SanXingduia lyrical response to largest archaeological bronze treesculpture

# 87 Pagoda Tree                         a former residence of a French poet at a taoist temple in the woods

#88 Encounter                                     Reflections in Dr Bussières garden

#89 Maples of a Hundred Years     two special maple trees in Xishan

#90 French Chestnut                  …time has condensed into a deep point in me’

# 91 The Greatest Blessing           caretaking for plants and animals is a blessing

# 92 Little Red Basin                     childhood memories

#93 Ginkgo of Baihuatan          Chengdu Ginkgos

#94 Trees of Fuhu Temple        the special wood of nanmu

#95 Magnolia Tree                     being stopped in your tracks by an unexpected sight

#96 A Place called Fairy Tree        A magical tree that can no longer be found

#97 A Tree Transplanted               finding the same tree everywhere

#98 Different Branches                 solitary explorations in the park

#99 The Trees are Whispering     Contemplating woodland communications

#100 Euonymus acquifolium      Plant Hunter

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Open Call for your just a minute Tree Story on video 

Memory Palace of Tree Stories is a socio-ecological art practice which invites you to tell a story or share information about trees . It is a creative-led social enquiry of how we can live well for both personal and collective wellbeing. Your story can be any kind of tree story , a personal tree story, a botanical tree story , an environmental tree story, an historical tree story or even a humourous tree story. I do hope you can contribute a comment on how we can live better with the greater community of life.

 

The year 2025 we continue to gather your stories in the form of one minute videos and we are really looking forward to hearing your tree story. I can be contacted directly on this platform or on the contact page on this website.

 

Niamh Cunningham